Bengaluru-based Finwizard Technology Pvt. Ltd, which runs wealth management app Fisdom, has raised $11 million (Rs 78 crore) by selling a minority stake to a bunch of investors.
Fintech and payments company PayU led the funding round, it said in a statement. Existing investors Saama Capital and Quona Capital also participated in this round.
The investment takes the total equity capital that Fisdom has raised so far to more than $16 million in three rounds. The startup had secured $3.84 million in a Series B round led by Quona Capital in late 2017 and mopped up $1.1 million from Saama the previous year.
The investment by PayU marks its entry into the wealth-tech segment. It also shows PayU’s commitment towards building a broader fintech ecosystem in India around core payments and lending businesses, the statement said.
Fisdom, founded by Subramanya SV and Anand Dalmia, operates on a partnership model with banks which enables it to access a large customer base and distribution network. It has tied up with Oriental Bank of Commerce, Bank of Baroda, Allahabad Bank, Karnataka Bank, City Union Bank and several more.
The startup helps consumers invest in multiple products including mutual funds, insurance, pension funds and digital gold. Currently, Fisdom serves more than 200,000 active customers with a significant majority coming from tier 2 and tier 3 towns.
Anirban Mukherjee, CEO at PayU India, said this investment is in line with the company’s strategic goal of building a comprehensive digital fintech ecosystem connecting merchants, consumers, and banks locally. With this investment, PayU is one step closer to offering payments, lending and wealth-tech services in a single stack, he said.
Fisdom co-founder and CEO Subramanya said that the investment would allow the startup to offer new products like insurance and broking.
Some of the other funded companies in the wealth-management segment include Orowealth, Cube Wealth and Kuvera. Bigger fintech companies Mobikwik and Paytm also operate in this segment.
PayU
The company is part of the portfolio of Prosus, which went public in early September after being spun off from South African technology conglomerate Naspers. Prosus comprises Naspers' global empire of consumer internet assets, with the jewel in the crown a 31% stake in Chinese tech titan Tencent.
In India, PayU’s largest investment was Citrus Pay, which it acquired for $130 million in 2016. Since then, PayU’s India fintech investment total has gone past the $500 million mark, the company says.